U.S. DRUG CZAR LINKS CANADIAN WEED TO SOARING HOSPITALIZATION OF USERS

WASHINGTON -- The number of American teenagers and adults ending up in
emergency wards or seeking treatment because of marijuana use has soared in
recent years and seems linked to the "dramatically" growing influx of
high-test Canadian pot, the White House drug czar said Thursday.

John Walters estimated the industry is also funnelling "billions" of
dollars into the pockets of organized crime north of the border and said
Canadian prosecutors tell him they need tougher laws to combat the grow-op
bonanza.

"It has grown dramatically," he said of the northern pot trade.

"The question that is always on our side of the border, and on theirs, when
these problems arise is 'How many more people will suffer until we are able
to change the trend line?"'

The elevated THC content -- the active ingredient in pot -- of Canadian
marijuana means it can no longer be considered a soft drug, argued Walters,
director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

His concerns, voiced at a news conference, reflect a growing anxiety among
some politicians and government officials in the United States about
Canada, a country not traditionally viewed as a major supplier of drugs.

The export of ecstasy pills made in Canadian labs and of the chemical
ingredients of illicit narcotics, such as methamphetamine, have also caught
the attention of the Americans, as underlined in a State Department report
released last week.

But Walters focused Thursday on the marijuana problem and how, he contends,
it is affecting young people in the U.S.

The number of Americans admitted to hospital emergency wards because of
marijuana use has doubled to 120,000 annually in the last five years, he
said. Meanwhile, the number of teenagers seeking treatment for marijuana
dependency has grown to the point where it is higher than for all other
drugs combined, including alcohol, said the official.

The phenomenon has paralleled a growing potency of marijuana available in
the North America, from containing one to two per cent THC less than a
decade ago to eight to nine per cent and, in some cases, 20 per cent or
more in recent years, he said.